But it's about time I put some pictures of the place up, right? ;) I thought I'd start with the bathroom, since that was the major work that we did first...it was a LOT more work than we expected, because when we first looked at the place, all in all, it didn't look that bad....it was just really bland, and didn't offer enough storage space for what we needed. Our original plan was simply to reglaze the tub (the one part that WAS bad, as there were some ugly stains and cracks near the drain), paint the walls, and move the brown cabinet to another wall to make space for a larger linen closet. I started working on it waaaay back in July, after our contractor was about done with the big-ticket items that we couldn't do ourselves.
But then...as I went to prep the tub to do the reglaze, I discovered THIS:
That, my friends, was caulk. Old, dirty, uneven caulk that was squished into every single crevice between every single tile in the entire bathroom, with no effort made to smooth it our or even make it look nice. And it was so old that I couldn't even peal the stuff out. I had to buy a little grout saw and blades and scrape and scrape and SCRAPE (yes, there are electric powered ones that can speed the job up, but they cost more, and you run the risk of seriously damaging the tile if you don't use it right, leading to more work...). It took me a full week just to scrape (caulk is harder to scrape than grout!), and then of course I had to replace what I scraped out with new grout. But it DID get done, and I am exceptionally pleased with my results:
As for the other things we did:
1. Removed a side grab-bar from the shower area--it was in the way, and we didn't need it.
2. Painted both the tile and tub with white epoxy paint--which also meant prepping, which was a series of 3 steps done 3 times each over the whole surface...MAJORLY time-consuming. But the paint sealed things up like we needed, and also offered a nice white finish all around--no more tacky pale blue trim.
3. Sealed the EDGES of the tub and tile with caulk. EDGES only. Sheesh. :P
4. Prepped, primered and painted the walls, a total of 3 coats.
5. Managed to fit a decent-sized linen cabinet in by the toilet, though it was not without some frustration...the air vent at the base of one wall prevented our being able to simply place the cabinet on the floor, and there's a chimney that runs behind the wall next to the toilet, preventing our hanging the cabinet from its back. In the process, we also discovered that those two walls don't meet in a perfect 90 degree angle! really?!).
6. Replaced the toilet seat for something sturdier and nicer, a very simple change, phew!
7. Repainted the brown cabinet in a dark gold to match a little with the blue and gold shower curtain that we've always had that's never matched any of our bathrooms but that we like so much. I also changed out the hardware on it in the process, then Daddy placed it on another wall as planned.
8. Replaced the towel racks with new-to-us racks from my nanny family, who happened to be redoing their bathroom a little at the same time.
9. Replaced the shower rod...putting the old one back in its place on the tile would damage the epoxy, but of course it was not adjustable, and there's a 2 inch space where the tile juts out from the wall by the showerhead. So we got a new, longer rod that we placed just above the tile on the wall...This one's easier to clean anyway--the old one had odd decorative (?) grooves running down its length...havens for dusty gunk. :P
10. Replaced the broken showerhead, the pipe of which was so recessed into the wall (that juts out...) that we were initially told by a worker at Lowes that we'd have to tear out some tiles to get to it...the tiles I'd just painted!!! A local hardware store I went to afterward at a friend's suggestion told me to just pull the pipe out and hold it with a vice grip while making the showerhead exchange. At first, having already struggled with so many unexpectedly harder issues, I didn't dare believe him, but Daddy got it to work without a problem, thank goodness.
11. Patched a large hole left by the old toilet paper holder, which, once out, we couldn't get back in again.... Regardless, it wouldn't have fit with the linen cabinet where it is, so all's well that ends well, I guess! A friend gave us a new holder she'd had laying around for a long while.
12. Changed the lightswitch to a dimmer switch.
13. Finally, I added a couple pictures and other personal effects...
...And presto! We now have a very different, much prettier, and much more functional (for us) bathroom: :)
From the bathroom entrance.
From the shallow end of the tub.
From the shower end of the tub.
Yes, that bathroom was a painful process. But as one of the most-used in the house...it's worth it to have it be functional AND look nice. ;) It took me 2-3 weeks to get everything done, which was brutal on our move-in plans--everything else was waiting on it, and we actually did not have a shower there for the first week or two that we were there, as we were waiting for the epoxy to cure. It was fortunate that we still had access to our old apartment until the end of August...because we had to shower there!
There are still a number of things we'd like to do in there...the 80's style cabinet doors under the sink desperately need replacing, as do the extremely odd sink faucet and broken plug. Vintage is one thing...tacky is something else entirely, and those are just tacky. Plus, Daddy can't stand that mirror. He wants one with sliding panels so the doors only close when HE tells them to. I for one wouldn't mind if the mirror were much lower, but that's another challenge by itself, and there are other more pressing needs at the moment...
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